Marla Bakery opening tomorrow in the Richmond

Though it’s had a bakery and cafe space in the Mission since the fall, Marla Bakery owners (and just married) Amy Brown and Joe Wolf have been gearing up for the opening of their Richmond District restaurant for even longer. Tomorrow they plan to debut their full service restaurant at 3619 Balboa street, assuming they pass one final building inspection today.

The restaurant will be open as a cafe all day and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner most weeknights, and brunch weekends, along with a Sunday supper that will happen at one long table, with a prix-fixe menu and wine pairings.

“It will be a huge family-style event. We’re going to try to do whole animal butchery for this, and try to create an element of community,” says Wolf, who would like to invite farmers and winemakers to come and talk when their food or beverage is featured.

Brown and Wolf don’t have official titles other than owner-operators; Brown will oversee bread and pastry production, while Wolf will work in all aspects, he says. They’ve hired chef de cuisine Emiliana Puyana and Chris Deegan, formerly wine director at NOPA, where Brown and Wolf met.

The couple is collectively salivating over their new custom Wandrian wood-fired oven from Vermont.

“We’ve been making bread for years if not for decades,” says Wolf. “Now that we’re making it out of this oven, the body of the bread, the crumb of the bread, the moisture inside of the bread–it’s just beautiful.”

Family members helped with the restaurant’s interior and furniture design, and the Mission’s Paxton Gate designed the garden and patio.

“We’ve made a commitment to be a place for the neighborhood and the community,” says Wolf, who lives with Brown a few blocks away. “It was always a dream for us to be able to walk to work.”